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Randolph Winston Cherryh

Let’s make another jump in Daredevil‘s episodes, and skip to the tenth one, Nelson v. Murdock. In this one, we meet another secondary villain, Randolph Cherryh, portrayed by Jonathan Walker. In the show, Cherryh is a corrupt US Senator who’s secretly on Wilson Fisk‘s payroll, providing the gangster with all the political support he needs for his activities (especially considering he wants to wipe out Hell’s Kitchen and rebuild it from the ashes). This is the first live action appearance of a renowned character in the comics, the core of a popular storyline who, however, never had a big influence on the main characters’ lives. The original one is not even a senator. Let’s see together.

A respected citizen of New York City, Randolph Cherryh was gifted with a natural charisma and an equally natural ambition. He studied to become a politician, and with the right contacts and friendships he made his way into his city’s electoral rolls. He immediately understood, however, that the only way to reach the top, and to stay on it, was to have just as many powerful friends inside politics and outside of it: he started granting favours to this or that “supporter”, accepting money in exchange as a “spontaneous form of gratitude”, and this chain of relationships and events soon led him to become one of the City Councilmen. Among the ones he owed his positions, there was nobody he was indebted to more than the Kingpin, the mysterious, undisputed lord of the city’s criminality. The Kingpin had done much to assure Cherryh his current position, and the Councilman knew that sooner or later he would have had to repay his debt…but in the meanwhile, he enjoyed his life as a respected local politician. He had a reserved table in all the most important (and expensive) restaurants in New York, and he used this to impress the girls who hanged out with him out of greed. During one of these dinners, however, Cherryh and his (current) girlfriend were attacked by a strange creature, later nicknamed Batwing (actually, the “attack” was limited to the creature stealing some apples from his table out of hunger, something that however made Cherryh feel humiliated). The Councilman called the media and announced he would have rewarded the one capable of capturing Batwing with 25000$. Spider-Man, out of money as always, stepped in wishing to receive the reward: when the creature showed up again, the hero was there, and cornered him. Batwing, unable to speak, gave Spider-Man his diary, in which all his story was recounted: he was actually a human boy, James Santini, transformed into a human-bat hybrid by the toxic waste dumpers who had killed his father. The hero pitied Santini, and let him go renouncing to the reward, much to Cherryh’s disappointment.

It turned out, however, that Cherryh didn’t have much time to keep hunting Batwing: Kingpin called him, telling him it was time to repay his debt. A skilled businessman, Kingpin knew how to use Cherryh’s natural inclinations to his own favour, and he told him he would have run to be the new mayor of New York City, a position he would have been pretty useful from. Of course, Cherryh obeyed, but a man from his equipe, Sheldon, learnt about his ties with the Kingpin, and decided to reveal everything to the press. First, Sheldon revealed what he knew to Daredevil, then he organised a meeting with Daily Bugle‘s editor J. Jonah Jameson; Cherryh, however, had informed Kingpin about him, and two goons, Turk Barrettand Grotto, were sent to kill Sheldon. Daredevil saved the man, but during the following trial Cherryh’s lawyer, Jeryn Hogarth, managed to nullify Daredevil’s and the Heroes for Hire‘s testimony: the only thing they could now use as evidence were the checks proving that Cherryh was taking money from the Kingpin, but the latter blackmailed Sheldon using his sister. Eventually, Daredevil, Luke Cageand Iron Fist convinced Sheldon to cooperate, but it was too late: Cherryh had already took possession of the incriminating checks. Daily Bugle’s reporter Ben Urichwas still investigating on Cherryh, and when the Councilman knew it, first he had a meeting with the journalist in his own private gym, where he confirmed all accusations mocking Urich for not being able to prove anything, then he informed Kingpin of the reporter’s digging: the crime boss sent one of his best assassins, Elektra, to silence him. One of Urich’s photos, however, proved to be pivotal for Cherryh’s utter defeat: in one of them, Vanessa Fisk, the allegedly dead wife of the Kingpin, could be seen. Randolph Cherryh didn’t know anything about this, and managed his campaign as always; when he won the elections, however, the Kingpin ordered him to concede, since Daredevil had Vanessa, and was ready to bring her back to him only if he gave up on the mayor’s chair. Randolph Cherryh’s political career had ended the very day after it started.

Randolph Cherryh is an ambitious and greedy man, a power-hungry politician ready to sell himself to the highest bidder in order to grant himself the position he desires. Smart and deceiving, Cherryh is able to keep his true nature hidden from everyone, especially from his voters, using a charming personality and a leader’s charisma, creating a public face that looks nothing like his private one. Arrogant yet cunning, Randolph Cherryh is the perfect kind of man the Kingpin needs to rule the city from the shadows.

[…] and took her back to the surface. At that time, Kingpin was trying to have one of his associates, Randolph Cherryh, be elected mayor of NY, and was actually succeeding in doing so: Daredevil revealed to him that […]

[…] of a perfectly honest businessman). When Sheldon, a smart and greedy kid, started blackmailing Randolph Cherry, the candidate for mayor Fisk had on his paybill, Grotto was ordered to kill him, and he followed […]